Soil water diffusivity as function of the pore size distribution and precompression stress

Abstract

The idea of the study was to combine the saturation-dependent hydraulic conductivity, K(Se), as intensity parameter with the volume fraction related to the fractional capillary potential for each of the characteristic pore size classes that based on the matric flow potential, φ, and the soil water diffusivity, D(θ). The analysis is focused on the soil hydraulic properties of differently textured soils with differences in the pore size distribution, PSD. The soil-moisture retention, θ(h), and K(Se) as function of the effective saturation were determined with undisturbed samples for each soil profile and horizon and fitted by Mualem–van Genuchten type analytical function. The results indicate a strong linear relationship between φ values and the soil water diffusivity, D(θ), of soils with its volume fractions of macropores (r2: 0.65–0.91), wide coarse pores (r2: 0.55–0.77), and medium pores (r2: 0.83–0.85). The precompression stress, Pc, as mechanical soil strength parameter affects the soil water diffusivity of the chosen datasets especially in the wide coarse pore range (r2: 0.85). The results suggest that the PSD’s-related φ and D(θ) values are affected by both textural and structural effects. The soil water diffusivity itself strongly depends on the PSD and is an effective link between soil’s intensity and capacity parameter.